Prep football quarterfinal roundup: Waukon moves on; Midland, Don Bosco to meet in semifinals again

Midland rallied from a two touchdown deficit in the second half Friday night and upset No. 9 Tripoli, 52-50, to earn its second straight trip to the 8-player semifinals in the UNI-Dome.

The bad news is, their opponent is the same as a year ago.

No. 1 Don Bosco (11-0) awaits Midland (9-2) for a breakfast kickoff of 9 a.m. Thursday. Last year the Dons won, 72-0.

But the Eagles can revel in their quarterfinal win for a bit.

Austin Smith rushed 47 times for 293 yards and scored three touchdowns. He also had 82 yards passing. Carter Mohr had four catches for 65 yards and two touchdowns.

Britan Martens had a 24-yard TD run and Smith had a 6-yard TD run as Midland took the lead, 44-42. The Eagles did not trail again.

Fisher Bisinger sealed the win when he carried a teammate's fumble one yard into the end zone to make it a two-score game.

Tripoli (9-2) managed to score with 53 seconds left on a Tyler Halverson 10-yard touchdown catch, but Midland's Jensen Dodge recovered the onside kick.

Marquise Paino led Tripoli with 33 rushes for 235 yards and four touchdowns.

— Daryl Schepanski, correspondent

DON BOSCO 62, HLV 0 — Running the football has always been a Don Bosco strength, but now the Dons have found an air attack.

Friday night all phases came to life as the top-ranked Dons smothered HLV, 62-0, in an 8-Player quarterfinal in Gilbertville.

The Warriors were averaging 60 points a game and boasted a two-headed rushing attack from Brandon Schafbuch (1,059), and Chase Sternhagen (1,028), and scored 12 touchdowns on returns.

The Dons (11-0) shrugged the statistics to the sideline and demolished the Warriors (9-3) holding them to 40 total yards of offense, and only two first downs.

'I was not that surprised that we were able to shut them down,' senior defensive end Dylan Rottinghaus said. 'We knew they were a good running team, but I am a little shocked that we held them to negative yards on the ground.'

The Warriors rushed the ball 21 times for a minus-14 yards.

— Rod Payne, Waterloo Courier

WAUKON 34, NEW HAMPTON 13 — The first one was a dog fight.

The second time around Friday night in New Hampton, No. 5 Waukon distanced itself from No. 10 New Hampton in a Class 2A playoff quarterfinal to earn a trip to the UNI-Dome with a 34-13 win.

Two long scoring drives gave the Indians (10-1) the momentum and they never gave it back, out-gaining the Chickasaws 415 yards to 150 to earn their second state semifinal appearance in school history.

This game was a rematch of a Week 2 game won by Waukon, 28-20.

'A fun group to coach,' Waukon Coach Chad Beerman said. 'At every position we have a kid who can make a play, and the line blocks well. Right now, everything is clicking.'

Waukon (9-1) scored on a 12-play, 86-yard drive for an 8-0 lead in the first quarter, and then made it 14-0 after a 14-play. 85-yard drive in the second quarter.

Indian quarterback Abe Schwartz scored on a 4-yard run with 35 seconds left to half that made it 21-0.

Waukon got a pair of Mitchell Snitker fourth-quarter touchdown runs to make it 34-0 with Snitker finishing with 143 yards on 26 carries.

Abe Schwartz passed for 149 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for 61 yards and another touchdown. Evan Armstead scored twice for the Indians who will face No. 1 Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley (10-1) at 4:06 p.m. next Saturday.

— Jim Nelson, Waterloo Courier